Finders and Keepers by Catrin Collier Read Free Book Online Page A

to do is telephone you – there’s bound to be one in the sanatorium. And then you can make arrangements to transfer him there.’
    â€˜That makes sense,’ Dr Williams agreed. ‘Should Doctor Adams agree to take your father, he’ll want to begin treating him as soon as possible. I’ll telephone him again later and tell him you’re coming, Harry. And you can pick up your grandfather’s notes here tomorrow morning before you leave. I’ll have them ready for you.’
    â€˜Thank you, Doctor Williams. Could you also give me the address of the sanatorium so I can look it up on the map?’
    â€˜I can, but you won’t miss it. It’s on the main road between Swansea and Brecon.’
    Glad that he finally had something to do, Harry turned to his father and uncles. ‘Then that’s decided? I’ll leave first thing in the morning.’
    Sali had insisted that Lloyd’s brothers and their wives join them for tea, but none of the adults had eaten much, and when she looked at the plates of sandwiches, cakes, salad and sweet and savoury pies that had been barely touched, she hoped the children had done more justice to the food Mari had laid out for them in the garden parlour.
    â€˜A delegation from the union called round the farm just before we drove down here. You know what it’s like in Tonypandy,’ Victor said deprecatingly.
    â€˜We do.’ Lloyd handed Sali his cup for a refill.
    â€˜They heard that Dad has TB and they said that even with the strike on, union funds could stretch to paying Dad’s hospital bills,’ Megan finished.
    â€˜There’s no need,’ Harry interposed. ‘I’ll borrow the money from my trust.’
    Lloyd gave Harry a stern look. His stepson’s cavalier attitude towards his trust fund as an unlimited source of revenue that he had done nothing to earn was the single source of contention between them. ‘As Joey told Doctor Williams, money’s no object and the least of our problems. Dad has saved all his life. He’ll want to pay his own bills, even if it means selling a couple of the houses he owns.’
    â€˜You’re determined to take Dad’s notes to this sanatorium tomorrow, Harry?’ Joey asked.
    â€˜Yes,’ Harry said firmly. ‘As I said earlier, none of you will want to leave Pontypridd while Dad and Edyth are in the Graig. And although I’m not questioning Doctor Williams’s description of this sanatorium, it might be as well if one of us sees what they can offer him before we take him there. It will be a long journey for someone as ill as he is.’
    â€˜What about Paris?’ Rhian asked. ‘You were so excited at Easter when you had the letter to say that a place had been reserved for you at the studio you chose.’
    â€˜I can go to Paris any time,’ Harry said dismissively.
    â€˜If they show you around the sanatorium, be careful,’ Lloyd warned. ‘Tuberculosis is highly contagious.’
    Harry shrugged. ‘I’m too strong and healthy to catch anything.’
    â€˜It’s horrible, especially the later stages.’ Joey recalled a world he had tried – unsuccessfully – to forget. More soldiers had died of disease, including tuberculosis, in the hospital tents in Mesopotamia than from wounds.
    â€˜People waste away to skeletons and cough up their lungs,’ he continued. ‘It’s messy and terrible to watch when the patient is a stranger. We all know how fond you are of Dad and him of you, Harry, but are you sure you know what you’re volunteering for, in visiting this place?’
    â€˜I haven’t overdosed on Keats’s poetry or The Lady with the Camellias, if that’s what you’re thinking, Uncle Joey. And I’ve visited hospitals. I delivered food to some when the General Strike was called in May.’
    â€˜And you let this blackleg into your house, Lloyd?’